Climate Emergency open data companion
Last updated: October 2019
As of July 2019, more than half of the UK’s councils have declared a ‘climate emergency’. This datakit is designed to help councils address this emergency by making open data relating to climate change more discoverable.
A variety of open datasets are presented with metadata and example visualisations. Structured data that has been pre-processed by the Trafford Data Lab are provided at local authority level where available. In some cases, the R script used to pre-process the data is given rather than the data.
A companion application enables UK councils - and their residents - to build a slide pack of data visualisations relating to climate change for their local authority.
Carbon dioxide emissions
Total carbon dioxide emissions are broken down by different domestic, industrial & commercial, and transport sectors. Carbon dioxide emissions are also available per capita (ktCO2/capita) in the source dataset.
Additional resources
The National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) website has an interactive map that allows you to explore CO2 emissions by local authority area and sector.
Carbon dioxide emissions from large industrial installations
Carbon dioxide emissions from large industrial installations are available across the UK from the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. Other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide are also available.
Non domestic energy consumption
Estimates of total industrial & commercial energy consumption are available for 2005 to 2016.
Road transport fuel consumption
Estimates of road transport fuel use by local authority are available for petrol (petrol cars, motorcycles and petrol LGVs) and diesel (diesel cars, diesel LGVs, HGVs and buses) consuming vehicles. Estimates by road type (motorways, A roads and minor roads) are also available in the source dataset.
Domestic energy consumption
Estimates of total domestic energy consumption area available from 2005 until 2016.
Domestic property build period
Information about the age of domestic dwellings is available from the Valuation Office Agency. The age of a building influences energy consumption with older properties tending to be less energy efficient than newer buildings.
EPCs by Environmental Impact Rating
An Energy Performance Certificate’s (EPC) Environmental Impact Rating is an estimate of the amount of CO2 produced by a home. The most energy efficient homes fall within band A (lowest CO2 emissions) and the least efficent in Band G (highest CO2 emissions). Lodgements on the Energy Performance of Buildings Register are published on a quarterly basis.
Flood risk
The chance of flooding from rivers and/or the sea is available at 50m by 50m resolution. Each grid cell is allocated to one of four flood risk categories, taking into account flood defences and their condition. The risk of flooding from surface water is available from here.
Additional resources
The Environment Agency has an interactive map showing flood risk information.
Air Quality Management Areas
Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA) are declared when a local authority expects that air quality will not meet the National Air Quality Objectives.
Additional resources
DEFRA has an AQMAs interactive map.
Background air pollution
Estimates for annual mean background concentrations of nitrogen oxide (NOx), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), coarse (PM10) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are available at 1km x 1km resolution.
Additional resources
The UK Ambient Air Quality Interactive Map visualises background concentrations of air pollution.
Roadside air pollution
There are several sources of continuous air quality monitoring data including: DEFRA UK-AIR; Air Quality England; Air Quality in Scotland; Air Quality in Wales; Northern Ireland Air and OpenAQ. The legal limits for NO2, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are available here.
Renewable electricity generation
Data on renewable electricity installations, their capacity (MW) and generation (MWh) are available at a local authority level.
Onshore wind
The location of operational onshore (and offshore wind) turbines is recorded on the Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD).
Recycling
The percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting by local council is available by financial year.
Licensed electric vehicles
The number of licensed electric vehicles (battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or range-extended electric) registered by the keeper’s local authority is published by the Department for Transport. Data on licensed diesel and ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) is also available in the source data.
Electric vehicle charging locations
Infomation about electric car charging points are available from Open Charge Map. The data are crowd-sourced so the accuracy of the data cannot be verified.
Additional resources
Open Charge Map allows you to explore electric vehicle charging locations across the UK.
Cycling
Local authority cycling rates are published by the Department of Transport from the Active Lives Survey.
The Active Lives Survey estimate that in 2017/18 the proportion of adults who cycled at least once a week was 11.1%. Other cycling frequencies are shown below:
| How often? | % |
|---|---|
| At least five times a week | 2.9 |
| At least three times a week | 5.3 |
| At least once a week | 11.1 |
| At least once per month | 18.4 |
Walking
Local authority walking rates are published by the Department of Transport from the Active Lives Survey.
The Active Lives Survey estimate that in 2017/18 the proportion of adults who walked at least once a week was 69.7%. Other walking frequencies are shown below:
| How often? | % |
|---|---|
| At least five times a week | 29.8 |
| At least three times a week | 43.5 |
| At least once a week | 69.7 |
| At least once per month | 79.4 |
Green spaces
Parks, playing fields, gardens and other green spaces that are likely to be publicly accessible are available in the Ordnance Survey’s OS Open Greenspace product.
Additional resources
The Ordnance Survey’s interactive OS Maps tool allows you to explore green spaces in the UK interactively.
